NP - new editions of Gaddis' JR, The Recognitions

[rich]

I've been through a few copies myself. no reason not to buy new ones

the awesome Steven Moore is editing a collection of selected letters of
William Gaddis (which I'm sure you know all about)

Gaddis' interview published in the Paris Review is also wonderful reading:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2577/the-art-of-fiction-no-101-william-gaddis

"Even though I should have known from *The Recognitions* that the world was
not waiting breathlessly for my message, that it already knew, and was
quite happy to *live* with all these false values, I’d always been
intrigued by the charade of the so-called free market, so-called free
enterprise system, the stock market conceived of as what was called a
“people’s capitalism” where you “owned a part of the company” and so forth.
All of which is true; you own shares in a company, so you literally do own
part of the assets. But if you own a hundred shares out of six or sixty or
six hundred million, you’re not going to influence things very much. Also,
the fact that people buy securities—the very word in this context is
comic—not because they are excited by the product—often you don’t know what
the company makes—but simply for profit: The stock looks good and you buy
it. The moment it looks bad you sell it. What had actually happened in the
company is not your concern. In many ways I thought . . . the
*childishness*of all this. Because JR himself, which is why he is
eleven years old, is
motivated only by good-natured greed. *JR* was, in other words, to be a
commentary on this free enterprise system running out of control. Looking
around us now with a two-trillion-dollar federal deficit and billions of
private debt and the banks, the farms, basic industry all in serious
trouble, it seems to have been rather prophetic."

he said this in 1986. how ever so true it is even today.

and more on fire the bastards:
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/01/24/mistaken-identity/

rich

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 8:10 AM, <rbollinger at austin.rr.com> wrote:

>
> Got an e-mail on this the other day - per Amazon it releases February 7:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/J-R-William-Gaddis/dp/1564784339/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
>
> J R
>
> A great masterpiece by William Gaddis, with a new introduction by Rick
> Moody.
>
> "Winner of the 1976 National Book Award, J R is a biting satire about the
> many ways in which capitalism twists the American spirit into something
> dangerous, yet pervasive and unassailable. At the center of the novel is a
> hilarious eleven year old—J R—who with boyish enthusiasm turns a few basic
> lessons in capitalist principles, coupled with a young boy’s lack of
> conscience, into a massive and exploitative paper empire. The result is one
> of the funniest and most disturbing stories ever told about the corruption
> of the American Dream"
>
> Also saw a new edition of The Recognitions in my local indie store last
> Saturday night, although Amazon says it doesn't release until February 20
> ....
>
>
> Rob Bollinger
> "I don't live in Texas - I live in Austin" - Molly Ivins
>
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